Guide: How-To HQ all the things

Guide:_How-To_HQ_all_the_things
This guide should be used as a reference point for HQing in FFXIV
This will be my method of crafting HQ. While others might do things differently, this will be a list of skills I use.
What we are looking for here are ways to get the best Quality by either increasing the Quality % or getting Great Success Careful synths.

Listed are the have-to-have's
What we are looking is 10-16 Careful synths To HQ from 0 Quality and 6-12 Careful synths to HQ from 500 Quality
Testing done and for High-difficulty crafted items it seems, for me at least, to work the best.
Byregot's Blessing (+100% Quality 3 steps)
Brand of Fire (+100 quality with instability and restabilizes synth)
Fit for Kings (+50% Quality 3 steps) or Magnum Opus (+150% Quality 1 step, needs Prismatic Glow)
Master's Mend (+30 Great amount of Durability back)
Comfort Zone (0 Durability loss 3 steps) Cant Great Success

This is a very nice summary. Thanks.

NP mang :)

How do you use improvise?
How do you cause instability and when?

doing 12 careful synths on a +9 craft should get you unstable at least once.

In other words, Instability abilities are more useful on higher level recipes than lower level ones.

Initial tests considered, it looks like there is an HQ nerf but not by very much. It is just enough to let people do +500 quality on equal rank recipes. I would say HQ-ing on higher recipes got a little boost whereas HQ-ing on lower recipes got more of a nerf.

Getting +800+ quality on low ranked recipes appears possible but not common. It depends on whether Byregot decides to bless you with a Magnus Opus combo...
+500-600 is common, after trying out several combinations of skills.

In perspective, 1.22 standardized it such that you can (relatively easily) get 500-600 quality on equal and lower recipes. On higher recipes, the average quality drops, perhaps linearly.

Not too happy with a HQ nerf on lower recipes and the need to adjust skills for other every recipe but on the balancing done...I would say the dev who did it is pretty darn good.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Green_and_a_Half

Piece by Piece (+30% Progress -0 Durability)

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I'd swap Piece by Piece out for Greater Calling, since 3 successful Rapids will grant you more than 30 progress.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jet

I'd swap Piece by Piece out for Greater Calling, since 3 successful Rapids will grant you more than 30 progress.

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Or better yet: greater calling with 3 standards causes 30-60progress (no durr loss) and 30-50quality gain.

Although I think the order in the OP for synths is:
carefull spams: till unstable with the piece by piece used to finish off the synth. which is probably the same as a 3x unstable rapid with greater calling.

greater calling does not eliminate dura loss

" Ensures success of all types of synthesis for the next three steps."

starting the synth at 70P/130D is perfect for HQing
you want to have that 5/9 ratio when you want to get the most out of crafting for HQ

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shosasosa

greater calling does not eliminate dura loss

" Ensures success of all types of synthesis for the next three steps."

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Successful Rapid does not use any durability. So Greater Calling x 3 Rapid = 45% to 60% progress with 0 dura loss.

If you don't have enough craftsmanship, the progress will be lower.

I like stacking Byregot's Blessing and one the two 125% Quality-on-next-action abilities I have from Culinarian and Alchemist. Culinarian has a +150% but it's only on Rainbow which isn't always guaranteed. With Byregot's blessing and a +125% ability i can sometimes get around 150-300 quality in one action if I get a great Success. I also use Determination + Standard Synth as my first action for the progress boost. Brand of X is really useful and I don't like taking them off especially since elemental overloads are so common on higher level synths.

It's really nice though, there is a lot of open-endedness to how you can approach crafting ability-wise.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Estellios

Culinarian has a +150% but it's only on Rainbow which isn't always guaranteed.

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You can do normal carefuls until you hit a rainbow before activating both abilties at once. That way, you guarantee the quality bonus. Assuming you don't go boom that is...lol..

True but rainbow also has the lowest success and it's even worse for high level synths. The 150% bonus isn't much if you fail =P

Of course it's amazing for anyone willing to gamble, I just like playing it slightly safer.

How is it that no one throws a "brand" in there? I have a half ghetto setup with a few 50~'s, and with HQ mats I get rediculous success with: Comfort Zone for 1 standard and 2 careful's (negates that extra loss from standard (since patch) and gives you two free not-awesome carefuls), then By the Book (or w/e if you have it) and you start at 50% done, around 10% (or more) HQ, and 100% durability.
After that Byregot's 3x and Inspiration 3x leaves you around 38-42 Durability (lowball'd) and around 70% HQ. Since careful's run about 8~ dura loss, you can finish out on that easily, and in a worst case scenario another standard if you need it. The only thing that'll break you is unstable. I could use 4 abil's and HQ all day, but the "Brand of Wind" or whatever ele.. Nets me a free 100 quality and complete stability if my synth happens to freak out. Way way more useful than people are letting one especially at 50+ synths.

Oh no, I loooove the Brands, once I figured out they work no matter the element.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tymora

You can do normal carefuls until you hit a rainbow before activating both abilties at once. That way, you guarantee the quality bonus. Assuming you don't go boom that is...lol..

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure using a skill now changes the color of synths. So, doing as you say is far from a guarantee.

yes you are wrong, you can wait for rainbow and pop it,. things that change the proccess or durability will change orb color

Any tips for getting an instability to appear? Been working with darksteel a lot, and I can only get instabilities to appear about 10% of my synths, mostly spam careful. Even tried getting rid of all my gear with control on it.

dont do anything buy careful from the beginning except master meld and piece by piece. should go unstable at 70% progress
i have 100 crafting 140control and 90 magcraft roughly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Green_and_a_Half

dont do anything buy careful from the beginning except master meld and piece by piece. should go unstable at 70% progress
i have 100 crafting 140control and 90 magcraft roughly.

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It depends on both craftsmanship and control really. If you want instability, you want them as low enough such that you get one stability per synth but not twice.

Craftsmanship low = more failures = more chances of instability
Control low = high chance of instability per fail

As for how much exactly, that's anyone's guess and it would vary with recipe.

but you need great success when un stable to get the best from the 200% :), its 9 lvls above you and if your not going unstable, switch it out with a different skill :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tymora

Successful Rapid does not use any durability. So Greater Calling x 3 Rapid = 45% to 60% progress with 0 dura loss.

If you don't have enough craftsmanship, the progress will be lower.

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" greater calling with 3 standards causes 30-60progress (no durr loss) and 30-50quality gain." is what she said... standard is not rapid last time i checked.

True, which boils down to the simple fact: How lucky do you feel today? :)

Could those of you crafting with the instability method be slightly more specific? I have tried a number of combinations of gear, including crafting stark naked. 100 darksteel nuggets and I saw instability 3 times.

Instability skills work beautifully when it procs, but I can't wrap my head around how to increase the instability rate. Is my luck really that bad, or are you only procing instability once in a dozen of synths as well?

My cooking gear sucks so I pretty much get it on every synth with things like pineapple juice.

I wanna ask you Green did you craft anything from a new stuffs? I mean Darksteel armor or new weps. Or you just giving advices here?

I craft it.
Im capped lvl 900 all @50
not much else to do

This guide should be used as a reference point for HQing in FFXIV

This will be my method of crafting HQ. While others might do things differently, this will be a list of skills I use.

What we are looking for here are ways to get the best Quality by either increasing the Quality % or getting Great Success Careful synths.



For lower lvl items setting stackable skills work well when you know you can great success a rainbow

for example, any 1 step move can be paired with any 3 step move.

Pop Byregot's Blessing at rainbow and do the next 3 actions one after another till all 3 carefulls are done.

{

Byregot's Blessing (+100% Quality 3 steps) +

Magnum Opus (+150% Quality 1 step, needs Prismatic Glow)

when rainbow and great success should give 200-400 on lower lvl synths.

Then Heart and Soul (+125% Quality 1 step) for another 200+

and

Purification (+125 Quality 1 step) for another 200+

}

follow up with

Comfort Zone (0 Durability loss 3 steps) Cant Great Success

for 3 standards and the rest careful

or

Master's Mend (+30 Great amount of Durability back)





Listed are the have-to-have's when picking your 5 for crafting higher then your lvl.

I changed it up some for Darksteel nuggets, rivets, plates, and ingots

Byregot's Blessing (+100% Quality 3 steps)

Improvise (+200% Quality 3 steps, needs Elemental Instability)

Fit for Kings (+50% Quality 3 steps)

Master's Mend (+30 Great amount of Durability back)

Piece by Piece (+30% Progress -0 Durability) or Comfort Zone (0 Durability loss 3 steps) Cant Great Success

This gave me 3 careful at 50-90 Quality, 3 Careful at 40-70 Quality, 3 Imporvise Careful at 60-120 and the ability to do 3-5 more Careful at 20-40 Quality capping HQ.

What we are looking is 10-16 Careful synths To HQ from 0 Quality and 6-12 Careful synths to HQ from 500 Quality

http://xivpads.com/?-Guides&Guide:_H...all_the_things

Hi Liquid,

Great guide. :) Thanks for putting it all together.

For Higher Level Synths, I have 3 of the 5 abilities you're advocating:

Quote:

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Byregot's Blessing (+100% Quality 3 steps)

Improvise (+200% Quality 3 steps, needs Elemental Instability)

Fit for Kings (+50% Quality 3 steps)

Master's Mend (+30 Great amount of Durability back)

Piece by Piece (+30% Progress -0 Durability) or Comfort Zone (0 Durability loss 3 steps) Cant Great Success

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But instead of Fit for Kings & Improvise, I have Culmination & Purification. I like having Culmination for its flexibility (Guaranteed "Great Success" on any next step) so that if a synth is going well, I can use Culmination + Careful (for Quality), or if it's going bad, I can Culmination + Rapid (+30 - 40% Progress).

What are your thoughts on Culmination & Purification? Not worth it?

Thanks~

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kiara

Hi Liquid,

Great guide. :) Thanks for putting it all together.

For Higher Level Synths, I have 3 of the 5 abilities you're advocating:



But instead of Fit for Kings & Improvise, I have Culmination & Purification. I like having Culmination for its flexibility (Guaranteed "Great Success" on any next step) so that if a synth is going well, I can use Culmination + Careful (for Quality), or if it's going bad, I can Culmination + Rapid (+30 - 40% Progress).

What are your thoughts on Culmination & Purification? Not worth it?

Thanks~

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Magnum Opus (+150% Quality 1 step, needs Prismatic Glow
I would mix this with Byregot's
if you are looking for a more quality.
But what ever seems to look correct to you,
I ran with a different setup for a week because it seemed to give the best HQ but you have to change it up to match how you craft, if you need that
"Culmination + Careful (for Quality), or if it's going bad, I can Culmination + Rapid (+30 - 40% Progress)"
to feel good that you are giving yourself the chance to rapid or careful, then stay with that.

Quote:

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Listed are the have-to-have's when picking your 5 for crafting higher then your lvl.

I changed it up some for Darksteel nuggets, rivets, plates, and ingots

Byregot's Blessing (+100% Quality 3 steps)

Improvise (+200% Quality 3 steps, needs Elemental Instability)

Fit for Kings (+50% Quality 3 steps)

Master's Mend (+30 Great amount of Durability back)

Piece by Piece (+30% Progress -0 Durability) or Comfort Zone (0 Durability loss 3 steps) Cant Great Success

This gave me 3 careful at 50-90 Quality, 3 Careful at 40-70 Quality, 3 Imporvise Careful at 60-120 and the ability to do 3-5 more Careful at 20-40 Quality capping HQ.

What we are looking is 10-16 Careful synths To HQ from 0 Quality and 6-12 Careful synths to HQ from 500 Quality

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So what are your stats like and which craft are you doing?

Your quality gains for your carefuls seems to be pretty high, and are you also getting lots of successes with your careful attempts? Cause when you're crafting L55 recipes, won't you be failing at least a few of those carefuls?

Regards

just made this last night 6-11-12
Using +1 mats
was able to 1000 quality the nuggets and spruce lumber.
900 quality the +1 ingot and 850 quality the flawless obelisk head
then only 650 quality for the finished obelisk, did not double down.
150+ control
120+ crafting
96+ mag craft
http://xivpads.com/files/char7029127...72Obelisk1.jpg

I dont use improvise, i get unstable 1/4 to 1/5 of my high level synths, so its not really worth it. This setup will net between 400 and 500 quality using NQ materials more than 95% of the time, its a very safe setup, but its very hard to go over 500, its not luck based like most of the setups posted here (which depend on unstable orbs or getting lucky with great sucess).

i start with standard, if i fail i use it again, then i use careful until i get a rainbow orb , then i pop Byregot's Blessing and perfection for a 90-130 quality, if i get red or rainbow for the next step i use culmination, if not i just use careful and culmination on the next orb. After this i use master´s mend (you can use whenever you want actually, but i like to save because it can change orb colors and probably stabilizing orbs) and keep using careful/standard, looking carefully to the progress and durability to get at least 69% and 20+ dura (if unstable) or 67% and 11 dura (if stable). Then i use another careful and piece by piece or by the book.

At least for me this is safest setup possible, sometimes if im feeling lucky i change perfection for purification and piece by piece for comfort zone. But this usually nets me more or less the same quality and feels more dangerous when i get unstable.

drake, your whole post is about "if this then that" setup
Yes, i have changed from using improvise


Masters meld + careful till rainbow
Byregot's Blessing (+100% Quality 3 steps) +
Magnum Opus (+150% Quality 1 step, needs Prismatic Glow)
when rainbow
Then Heart and Soul (+125% Quality 1 step)
Then careful
Then
Comfort Zone (0 Durability loss 3 steps)
Only 2 standard and 1 careful,
then all careful to finish.

The entire synth at any lvl only ever needs
2 standard to get to 40 progress and the rest are careful

On a Very High synth I will change Then Heart and Soul (+125% Quality 1 step) for
A Brand where you get 20-100 quality and re-stabilize
Brand of Fire (+100 quality with instability and re-stabilizes synth)

But again, play how you feel the best for you.
I know my tactics work for me because I am able to make everything in the game. But,, that doesnt mean everyone has to use my tactics for HQing.
Just a guide